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The Federal Reserve Bank and Monetary Values

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Monetary values have changed throughout history because problems presented in each system of commerce. Bartering was among the earliest forms of commerce to present a problem. It did not establish monetary value in anything specific, allowing an individual’s wants or needs to be deemed monetary values. Each seller could make exchange requests based on different things. For example, a starving man could deem grain a commodity if he only manufactures luxury goods. Based on his hunger, the starving man can request to make an exchange of his luxury good with farmers for grain. Given that luxury goods are not a necessity, nor desired by everyone, the farmers can refuse his offer. The man would have to barter with a third party to acquire whatever the farmers were willing to make an exchange for. Inconsistent commodities in bartering made transactions inefficient because it could require multiple exchanges. Standards were established to combat the inefficiency of bartering through establishing value in one set commodity that all would accept. With a standard, the man could obtain grain directly from the farmers because it is mandated that the standard be accepted as debt payment. Therefore, it is more efficient to have a standard which only requires one transaction than to barter. For a matter of convenience, value transferred from virtually any object to specific resources. A common resource used for standards is metal. In early empires and recent nations, gold and/or silver

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